Cationic Liposomes and DNA Delivery

AbstractLiposome technology offers several potential advantages for delivering functioning DNA to cells in intact animals. A particular advantage of cationic liposomes is simplicity. The use of chargecharge interaction as a device for forming DNA-liposome complexes circumvents the necessity to incorporate DNA into the liposome during process of manufacturing the liposomes. In addition, cationic liposomes complexed to DNA may behave differently in. vivo than other liposomes. In the lungs, transgenes can be expressed following either intravenous or airway delivery of cationic liposome-DNA complexes. Aerosol delivery of such complexes may prove a particularly useful clinical approach. The ability to target liposomes to particular cell populations by incorporating into the liposome proteins with affinities for different cells may be a particularly useful strategy for selective delivery of DNA to sub-populations of cells in the lungs and other organs. The fact that cationic liposomes can effectively deliver transgenes to the lungs as well as other organs makes it likely that this technology will be one of the clinical approaches which proves useful.